Blog #8 - One Hundred Years of Solitude Pt. 2
And that is that -- the second half of One Hundred Years of Solitude -- over! After building up so much anticipation around Gabriel Garcia Marquez's work, I really found myself looking forward to this book all semester, wanting to savour it for as long as possible. I have this bad habit of reading books through until about 90% of the way and then just leaving them. After I build a sort of connection to the characters I have a really hard time finishing books, and therefore, in my mind, letting the worlds that I have come to love and know die. Finishing this book was hard, and I'm left with a sort of nostalgia. What can you read after this hurricane?
Although the book occurs chronologically, and therefore you want to assume linearly, the constant jumps back to the past create a sort of cyclical timeline that blends both the past and the present.
The repetition of behaviour that occurs within the book, and the way that characters continue to repeat mistakes and have similar mannerisms/coping mechanisms as their parents really highlights the question of how much can people change? When I think of my own ancestors from several generations ago, I assume that we have progressed significantly since they have been around... I think this book really emphasizes that although the world around us can change incredibly... we are all just human. This also reminded me of the experience I had when I first moved to Vancouver. I found myself wanting to escape my small hometown in search of a fresh start, but, I ended up meeting the same types of people with different names and faces. It was such a bizarre feeling and lead to a huge realization that regardless of where I am - in time, place, circumstance, life is circular. Your habits and behaviours will lead you to find the same types of people and get caught in the same types of situations, something I believe the family line through the generations experienced. All in all, regardless of the decade we grow up in, we will all experience love, pain, regret, disaster, and we will often deal with it in the ways that we have been taught. I also tied to repetition of coping to intergenerational trauma, and the debate between nature, nurture, and the interaction of them together.
My question for discussion: Did you find yourself reflecting on your own family and ancestry? Did you notice any behaviours/bad habits that have been relentlessly passed down through your own lineage?
I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one with nostalgia after finishing a book! In several ways the novel speaks to us about the persistence of the past: as repetition, as anticipation or as spectral companions of the present (I am thinking of Melquiades' room where two or more "Presents" are possible). These recent years have made us think of similar experiences.
ReplyDeleteHi Cadence! It was really interesting to read your thoughts about attracting the same people or maybe manifesting the type of people and experiences you attract from just being yourself. I found the same thing true when I first moved to vancouver. To answer your question, I definitely did think of my family throughout. My brothers and I have all been given names that were from our grandparents or from people my parents looked up to (in the same way names are passed down in this book). And certainly some unfortunate traits that have been passed down as well ahaha but ill leave those out.
ReplyDeleteHi Cadence! Thank you for your great post, it was really fun to read and gave me a lot to think about! I really found . To answer your question, while not to the extreme of the Buendia family, I can definitely see some behaviours in our family that has been "passed down" through my lineage. While my family is filled with many unique and individual personalities, I found that a commonality throughout multiple generations has been the high value on hard work, to the point where little details may consume us until we complete a project in our respective fields. This is something that I have recently noticed a lot in all my family members, from my sweet little grandma who is always on the go to even the tiniest members of our family, who work incredible hard in their own little ways. It's really interesting if we really look deep into our own family structure, we may find ourselves in a loop of habits similar to that of the Buendia family. Anyway, Thanks again for your post!!
ReplyDelete